US Customs seize 83 kilos of Ecstasy

[Lazy Fed]

U.S. officials seize 83 kilos of ecstasy after it crossed border from B.C.
Jeremy Hainsworth, Canadian Press
Published: Tuesday, May 22, 2007 Article tools

VANCOUVER (CP) - U.S. officials say they seized 83 kilograms of the drug ecstasy as it was headed south in the United States at the Osoyoos, B.C.-Oroville, Wash., border crossing.

Mike Milne of U.S. Customs and Border Protection says the drugs were found in the rear doors of a truck and trailer bound for California on Friday.

About 262,000 pills in 49 packages were found as officers did a routine scan of the vehicle.

Milne says it's not known if the Canadian man and woman in the vehicle knew the drugs were there.

No charges have been laid.

Milne says the importation of ecstasy from Canada into the U.S. has now far outstripped the smuggling of "B.C. bud" marijuana.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection area port director Ron Arrigoni called the bust 240 kilometres east of Vancouver significant.

"Our officers continue to make significant narcotics seizures along the U.S.-Canada border, both inbound and outbound," he said. "This case illustrates the multiple smuggling threats along the U.S.-Canada border here in the Pacific Northwest."

Indeed, the seizure is more of what U.S. officials have already called a significant problem along the western border between the U.S. and Canada.

Last March, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized 210 kilograms of ecstasy as well as 375 kilograms of marijuana as part of a routine check at Blaine, Wash., 40 kilometres southeast of Vancouver.

The drugs were found in 21 drums on a truck with Canadian licence plates. The manifest recorded the cargo as shredded scrap plastic.

Officers became suspicious after doing a gamma ray scan of the truck and ordered it to a loading dock for a complete examination. During that search, officers found the drugs.

"They were in bags inside the drums," Milne said.

In January of 2006, U.S. customs officers charged two 17-year-old Canadians after they seized 5.3 kilograms of ecstasy concealed on them when they tried to cross the border in a vehicle.

And in a March 2006 incident that made news around the world, border officials found a drug tunnel running from a Vancouver suburb into Washington state.

Authorities said drug smugglers had just finished the 109-metre tunnel north of Lynden, Wash., which ran from the living room of a home on the U.S. side to a boarded-up Quonset hut on the Canadian side.

© The Canadian Press 2007

[countybear]

Nice pop! 'Atta boys all around.